A stream cascades through the terraced botanical gardens of Balchik, which wind down to the sea. Commissioned by the eccentric queen Mary of Romania (d. 1938), they illustrate her taste for English landscaped gardens. The gardens are home to a multitude of species of Mediterranean, exotic and sometimes rare plants and are dotted with pavilions (the holiday homes of the Romanian nobility), watermills and a charming, Venetian-style culvert.